IP rights means stronger revenues, OHIM study claims

Companies that obtain protection for their intellectual property typically have a 29% higher revenue than companies that do not, a study has claimed.

According to a report by the Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) published yesterday, June 18, companies with IP rights generate more revenue and employ six times as many workers.

The report, titled “Intellectual property rights and firm performance in Europe: an economic analysis”, studied publicly disclosed financial information on more than two million companies across Europe.

Although OHIM stated it would like to see future work “analyse the impact of IP rights on small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and young firms in more detail”, it did identify a trend of small businesses benefitting from greater IP protection.

But the report found that just 9% of SMEs have registered IP rights, compared to 40% of large companies.

The report also stated that nearly €5 trillion ($5.7 trillion) worth of economic activity across the EU is generated by industries with high levels of IP rights and that more than a third of employment in the EU comes from such industries.

António Campinos, president of OHIM, said: “SMEs are the backbone of the EU economy, and our study shows that IP rights are an economic asset for them.

“This study, however, shows that we need to do more to promote the economic advantage of IP among SMEs, who benefit from it the most. Our aim is to help SMEs to fully explore the economic potential of their IP rights,” he added.